On paper, the fact that West Ham United are keeping a hold of Nuno Espirito Santo in the Championship looks like a relative coup.
Nuno, of course, has enjoyed great success in the second tier before following his time with Wolves. The Portuguese led them to promotion at a canter back in 2018.
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As such, the fact that Nuno is now set to stay at West Ham next season can be framed as good news.
Yet, there’s a strong argument to suggest that the landscape for him is now entirely different.
West Ham unlikely to have as good a team as Nuno boasted at Wolves
Nuno deserves a lot of credit for what he did with Wolves. The point of this article is not to downplay his achievement.
Still, context is important. During that promotion-winning campaign back in 2017-18, Nuno boasted the likes of Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota and Conor Coady.
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That is not to say that promotion was a given, just that signing Porto’s captain for what was then a Championship record fee of £15.8million makes that task slightly easier.
Nuno is unlikely to have such a luxury here in east London. West Ham are expected to sell some of their best players following relegation, and it’s almost impossible to imagine they will ever be in a scenario where they can sign a player as good as Neves.
It’s a sobering thought, but West Ham will likely have a weaker squad than the one Nuno worked with at Wolves in the Championship.
Again, that’s not to say he cannot get West Ham promoted at the first time of asking. Anyone hoping that he can instantly translate what he did at Wolves into success with West Ham, however, might have another thing coming.
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